Alternative Investing in Notes, The Ultimate Mailbox Money with Scott from Real Estate Investing Club

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Hello and welcome to another episode of the Real Estate Investing Club. I'm your host, Gabe Peterson, and this is the place investors go to gain actionable advice, learn about current market trends, and hear war stories from other professional investors out there in the field today. Before we get started, I have two quick housekeeping items for you. First, if you like this episode, we would very much appreciate a like subscribe and share. It is the best way to support the show and keep it running far into the future. Second, if you're a new investor looking to get started in real estate or an experienced investor looking to take your investing to the next level, I've created an ebook just for you that will cover how to find deals that are actually deals, how to finance those deals with little to no money down, and how to exit those deals for for maximum value. On top of that, I throw in an insane amount of free bonuses that you'll have access to once you buy the ebook. All I charge is our admin cost to keep this show running. So if you're serious about real estate investing and want to create both active and passive income as an investor, head on over to the website@therealestateinvestingclub.com and click on the button that says get the E book in the upper right hand corner to grab yourself a copy with the with that said, let's dive right in. Today we have a very special guest with us ready to drop some investor knowledge on you. So buckle up, grab your pen and paper and enjoy the ride.

All right, we are back with another episode of the Real Estate Investing Club. Today we have Scott Choppin with us. Scott is the founder and CEO of Urban Pacific Group of companies. Irvin Pacific is a real estate development company specializing in the development of privately financed workforce rental housing called Urban Townhouse.

Or UTH for short.

UTH specifically serves new housing units to multi generational working families. I am always a big fan of affordable housing, especially living in an area like Seattle. So Scott, I'm really excited to have you on and talking about workforce rental housing.

Gabe, great to be here. Appreciate the invite.

All right, I mentioned before we got on here we always start with stories at the Real Estate Investing Club. Um, cause we I just like to hear where people got started and how they are where they are today. So you have a good run I'm sure.

How'd you get started in real estate?

So my, I have a family background in real estate development. So my, my dad and my uncle both ran businesses that were developers of real estate projects. Commercial and apartments predominantly. So I had the great, you know, sort of benefit of being around that. But, you know, that didn't necessarily teach me how to be a developer. So when I was, after I graduated from high school, I ended up working for a couple years in the, in the construction trades. Like, I just, you know, didn't have necessarily a great plan. Looking back on it now, I had no plan. But that taught me, you know, what construction was and learned that, but also showed me what I didn't want to do, which was construction. At least it, you know, for any period of time. But it sort of gave me a sense of like the progress of a deal, that kind of thing. At that same time, this is like 18, 19 years old. I read a lot. And so I was reading books about real estate investing. These were long before the great books that are out now. So it's sort of like how to make a million bucks investing in real estate on the weekends type of books. And that really, those books gave me like, enlighten me about deal making, right? Like what it was to be entrepreneurial, find a project or identify an opportunity, do something with it to improve value. Either you buy discounted or you value add. And so that like the light bulb went off and go, oh, this is what my dad and my uncle do. But now I understood, okay, this is how they make money. This is how they take care of their families. And so from that point on, basically I was on a mission, decided I needed to go get a college degree, graduated and went to work for a couple different companies professionally to learn the real estate development business. And I do differentiate development from investing. Very a lot of overlap. And for many years I even sort of considered them to be the same thing. But they're really very different in the context of developers take empty land or underutilized land and build new buildings on it. So we have, you know, a lot of design and construction depth that is not found in the investing marketplace and some advantages and disadvantages there. And in fact, I'll end on this note. I think of real estate development as the ultimate value add. Right. We're taking an empty piece of land and we're building a brand new building on it. And so it's like an extreme version of value add. Yep.

Yeah, I've. I was kind of in your boat. I always thought investing in development were essentially the same thing. I have better knowledge now because I've looked into, into development. I realized there's so much more in development than there is in real estate investing. So yes, they are different. And I would, you know, eventually I'd like to get into there, but there is a lot to learn and it's cool that you got into it or I kind of respect that you got, instead of just jumping in, you decided that you wanted to join a company and learn and that, you know, I've said it so many times on this podcast, investing, being in real estate, you can just jump into it. If you guys are kind of analysis by paralysis kind of thing, you do have to just take a first step. But it is so beneficial to learn from by joining somebody who's actively in the field, doing it. And sounds like that's what you did.

Yeah, you get to learn on somebody else's dime. As the shorthand, I say, Gabe.

Yep, yep, absolutely. So that's cool. I mean, you were in the environment, your parents were growing up, you know, they were doing development. You got into construction, which is always, you know, it's good to have that knowledge. And then from books, you kind of had that light bulb moment, which, you know, everybody always does. They're, they're thinking about real estate and for some reason they learn something and boom, they all of a sudden realize, yes, okay, this is why you do it. This is the benefits. Yeah, that's kind of what you went.

Yeah, it gave meaning to what a real estate developer was like, you know, it's like, oh, build buildings and projects. But you go, oh, here's the heart of it. Here's the heart of the thing. To understand it, to give it meaning to. Then that produces action. So that, that, that was, you know, how I came to it.

Yep, I love it. So once you, you know, kind of went through, you joined this company, you were learning, you know, how development works, you were learning the cycles, the terminology, everything that happens. How did you jump out or when did you jump out to. To create your own company?

So I think from the beginning, even before I went back to college or went to college and worked for other people in my background, because I came from an entrepreneurial environment. You know, both my dad and my uncle were, you know, self started, they created their own companies, they built them, they managed them over, you know, the many years that they did that. So I think that was always in my background. I think you'd have sort of a. But my wife and I were joking. You know, she, she was, you know, we were comparing each other's like, rule of following philosophy. And I was like, yeah, I'm a rule breaker, right? She's like, I'm a rule follower. And you know, I was a good. Yeah, right, exactly. It's good. A good, you know, combination and some good overlap. But I think that the thought process of working corporately, you know, look, working in construction and working for these companies that I did professionally in the development that, that taught me what the corporate, you know, construction isn't corporate, but at least where I worked it wasn't. But the companies I worked for and I just, you know, I got a taste for it, but I always had in the back of my mind that I was going to work for myself.

Right.

Like I, and, and, and having said that, Gabe, I had like no idea what that meant. Right. Like none of us do, you know, to like to have to make the deal work and make money so you could pay the mortgage and, you know, feed your family. Like, you know, the intensity of it I think was, was not on me, but I basically spent, you know, about five years, close to five years working for other people, other companies. And there was just at a period of time where I felt like I was self. I had enough knowledge to be autonomous on creating deals. And in fact, the first company I worked for was a subsidiary of a company called KB Home, a home builder. But the division I worked for was an apartment development division. And I worked for a really good set of people there. My cost around that group, I still, in fact, Mike's on our advisory board for real Estate fund. His Mike's philosophy was to like, hey, as a project manager, you're from beginning to end. Like you, you know, you find the deal, you put together the financing package. I mean, they supplied the knowledge and the financial capacity and the track record. Like the company did all that. But we were autonomous to some degree to go create new opportunities. He encouraged that and gave us the exposure to do the entire thing from beginning to end. That's unusual in the business and development. Like if you work for a building company, they're like, dude, your construction, your sales, your land act right? And you overlap enough to shift the project to the next person. But what happens after that? Like, you're out, right? So by the time I work for the second company called Cirrus Regis Group in Orange county, like I knew how to do a deal and then it just became a function of finding the deal, finding the capital, putting those together and executing on those. So Basically I was 32, it was 1999, and basically it was like I had come to a point where I felt like I learned enough to be able to do the deals. And I'm not saying it was Right or wrong, it wasn't perfect. I look back at it differently now and probably would have chose a little bit different timing, which I can go into. But I think it was at that point, at 32, I'd gotten to a point professionally where I could felt sufficient to be able to execute deals and then launch. In fact, I basically was driving home and I called my wife and I go, hey, I remember that thing we've been talking about. Well, it's today. Like, we're launching the company today. Guess what? And her, to her great credit, she was and has been for our entire marriage, which we're together and married for 28 years. She's been a trooper.

That's great. I mean, before we move on, I really want to talk about urban housing. But before we do that, I just want to talk about how you knew the timing was right. Because I jumped out. I feel I was not prepared. I did make the jump. Looking back, I made it. I made it through. I'm here and it's all working out, but I didn't have enough. I came from project management on the software side. I was a consultant, and I was doing all that stuff, and I just made the jump. Um, I didn't have enough money in the. In the bank to really float me. And so I was scrounging for a long time. And looking back, I wish I had, you know, jumped, joined a company and learned a little bit more before making that leap. But, you know, hindsight's 20 20. Yeah.

Yeah. I'm. What happened with you, Gabe, is what happened with me. And the only difference was that I had, you know, now five years of real estate development experience. And as you said earlier, real estate development is a complicated undert. There's a lot of things like zoning and politics and design and, you know, market analysis of new units. That isn't, you know, you don't cross that investing. And so that was a lot of. And. And for me, it was like. I felt like the way I described it is like, knowledge of real estate development. This could be applied to anything that's like, got complex, like knowledge needs. I thought of it as a framework of knowledge. Right. And so in deals, as you probably experience, you know, you sort of get in the middle of a deal, particularly if you work for other people. They're like, all right, you're a project manager and you're in this deal now, and it's like half built or half done, or maybe it's the end and it's leasing or maybe it's. So I Always like you got a sort of this disjointed, like, experience of that part of the deal. And so I just felt like I was filling in the framework eventually where I'd experience basically what all the things. And, and I felt like I could be competent in all those things. And that was sort of my measure. And like, I speak it as if it was like I sat down and did this broad analysis. I didn't, man, I was like, it's time to go, let's go. And, you know, who knows? Maybe it was like, you know, the person I was working for was like a pain in the ass and whatever, you know, But. But what?

I'll.

What, I'll end with this. This is. And I appreciate what you're saying. And so I advise people now who are thinking about that. I mean, one, there's no perfect time, right? It's like you will never. And if you wait for the perfect time, it will never happen. And it will take really much longer than it should. But I really, I think of it in two ways. One is have enough savings in the bank to bank you for like, probably a year to three years, right? And maybe, you know, three years, like, you know, longer the better, right? However you can save to do that. Because the way I say it is if your savings can sustain you for that extra six months or that extra year to complete your deal and then get revenue positive on a deal and you have six months more and the other guy runs out six months earlier, well, you now have a strategic advantage of just a little bit extra Runway to accomplish that. Because as you know, in deals always takes longer. It's always more expensive and less profitable than you imagine. And by the way, people who are new entrepreneurs and new deal makers, then everything is possible. Oh, this deal is great. It's going to make a lot of money. It's going to be really fast. And seasoned guys like us were like, yeah, maybe just wait. In a perfect world, right? I've had, We've all had those deals, but I've also had the opposite where, like, I got my ass kicked, right? Yeah. So that's. So that's number one. Number two, though, and this is really the more important thing. And earlier I alluded to, you know, I would have timed it differently. And where I really go with it is networks of people, capital, partners, whoever, vendors. And if I had to. So I left when I was 32 now, I probably would have stayed for another five years. And what I would have worked for would be to build an identity amongst high Caliber, institutional capital sources that would see me in a senior or more senior executive role. So that when I did launch at 37, they're like, oh, yeah, this guy, I've seen him. Not only does he know what he's doing, but I've watched him over, you know, arc of time to be competent. And I watch people now who do that and they come out and they're like, on fire, man. They got all this capital, they got, what the heck, man? I had to kill myself practically to make it happen. And that's what I built, you know, in a scrambling method. So it would be like, just take a little bit extra time and be intentional about it and really build those networks where you're proving yourself. Because if you do that, you can make that call and you go, hey, Joe, I'm leaving. I'm going to go do deals. And they're like, cool, I watched your work. I love what you do. I know you know how to do it. Like, they trust you, right? In a way. And then all of a sudden, the books of the capital, the checkbooks open a little bit more effectively.

Yep, absolutely. And on that, the networking note, something that I wish I had started earlier. I'm not a huge fan of social media. I do think it can definitely be a waste of time, but there is value in there, especially when you're engaging with people who are in your network. So a really good way to build your network is just start posting updates about what you're doing in your career before you think you should. If you're working in a job in real estate and you haven't created your company yet, start posting now. Because people will have that association in their mind. They'll say, hey, this is Scott, this is Gabe. They're thinking about buying an apartment building, buying a mobile home park, something like that. And so you just have that association. The more you post, the more people make that association. And eventually when you do make that leap and you do go out and create your company, you'll have that mental for the network of people who think of you as an investor, as a developer.

Yeah, that's identity, what I said. So I was speaking in a corporate manner. Identity. People know, you know that you know what you're doing. But social media is the same, right? People knowing you as your identity and go, oh, yeah, I've been seeing that guy for five years. And you know, obviously social media is a little bit more like you're more exposed, right. Good or bad. Right. Failure, success, you know, and actually, I think the best People on social media who share everything as raw as they can, and it's brutal. I mean, we do a lot of social media work, and I'm not like a big fan of, like, exposing, you know, breakdowns, but we know they happen, right? It's not like we got, oh, you know, we're perfect and bulletproof. Nobody is. And in this business, we know that for sure. So, yeah, definitely. And now for me, in 2000, there was no social media and there's no bragging. I like, I think you're right. In fact, I advise people now, like, people could build an identity way more quickly and powerfully than has ever been available in human history. You could do it without doing any deals. I mean, you should be doing deals or at least learning. I advise a guy and I said, hey, he wanted to invest. I go, okay, go out and look at 100 deals. He wanted to buy apartments or raise money and invest in apartments. I said, go, do 100 deals. And I go, be intentional about not doing the deal. And then we'll talk after you're done. Because I said to him, by the time you're like your 30th or 50th deal, you're going to know the market brokers will know you. Maybe you're posting on social media, like you're talking about, you're out hustling. And most importantly, I said, now you'll know what a good deal is, because a lot of investors get the new sponsor, they go, oh, dude, I got this great deal. It's so good. Investor looks at it and goes, man, I know the market, and this thing's not that great. Like, you bringing this to me and telling me it's a good deal just immediately tells me you don't know what you're doing. And, you know, like, not to be harsh on people, but the reality is, and that's at no cost, right? Look at the deal, underwrite the rents, call the brokers, you know, talk to the, you know, seller, if they're willing, go walk the units, walk the neighborhood, you know, do everything that you would do that you think you could do and even ask questions, hey, I'm underwriting this deal. What do I do? And that's all free, man. I mean, it's time and you should probably could do it with no money. But that's what I always advise to, you know, if you're not going to work corporate, corporately, you know, there's many, many ways, too, that you could get exposure at no risk. And then by the time you Talk to people. They're like, yeah, dude, I underwrote a hundred deals in the last whatever, you know, six months. That's impressive by itself.

All right, I just took a, took a peek at the clock and so I want to move us on a little bit. You're here. I mean, you guys specialize in urban townhouse development for workforce rental housing, which is something I'm excited to learn about because you know, I told you before the show, we own mobile home parks. I'm a big fan of affordable housing. So tell me, how did you kind of get into workforce rental housing? Well, actually first for people define workforce rental housing. Tell me why you got into it and then we can go from there.

So, you know, and workforce housing has like many definitions, so it's a good question for you to ask. So the way I think of workforce housing, it sits between market rate and true affordable. Right? Market rate. Just anything that's on the market that's maybe luxury or high end or just like. No, like there's no like benefit for a family that's like moderate or lower income. On the other end you have government subsidized housing where you know, there's, you know, low, low incomes can afford it, right? Cause the rents are lowered and there's this middle space, right. Of families that are blue collar working class families. They make too much to qualify for the trip. The government subsidized and either they can't afford the luxury or what we see is they don't want to. Because you know, you see it in Seattle. A lot of the new housing is studio and one bedroom, you know, mid rise downtown locations, you know, and it's sexy stuff, right? But if you're a family of five or six or seven, you're not living in a studio in downtown xyz. And so we really identified a space in this middle. In fact, a guy on my team, Tim Versace, created this idea of forgotten middle, right? So forgotten because the real estate development business has not focused on multi gen middle income working class families that are, you know, the heart of, you know, our, our nation in the sense of this is the working class, right? These are the people who work in different service industries. These are maybe people work in, in you know, the medical, you know, first responders, that kind of thing. And so we identified creating a rental housing type that served these families that live multi generationally that live generally in a moderate income category. So UTH Urban townhouse is a product we created. And that's a three story townhouse with five bedrooms and four bathrooms, two car garage. And we build them in what we call urbanized suburban locations. So you got downtown, you know, Seattle central business district. And you got the suburbs. You know, we're in the in between space again, another middle. And these are urbanized. So they're older suburban communities that have sort of densified a little bit. Right. And they're close enough to commute. If you got a job that you do work downtown. And it's not like really far out, like where it's you know, big lots and you know, detached, you know, really true suburban as I call it. So UTH was created to serve these multi generational, multi earner, working class families. And we're active on that really throughout Southern California presently.

Cool. I love it. So you said it's three stories, five bed, four bath.

So that really does speak.

I mean you said multi generational. I like that personally. Like my, this has nothing to do with the market but my personal philosophy. I love the multi generational concept. You know, families living together, having a lot of, you know, closeness because humans were meant to be together. We're meant to communicate, we're meant to be develop relationships. So I like that. That's kind of what you guys are focused on. Even though, you know, it is, it is market centered. It is based on what you're seeing in the market. So you, you do five bedrooms in a three story townhouse. How many is that usually clustered in four townhouses together or you know, we.

So like any multifamily developer, we do, you know, multi unit projects. So our average right now is where Our range is 15 to 85 units in each project. And so we'll have this unit type. In fact we have really one unit type that is this five bedroom, four bathroom. We have some alternatives if we need to fit units into a site plan. But basically we're after growing a portfolio of these assets that serve families throughout Southern California. We're a long term owner. I referenced the equity fund. So we're in the process of raising $60 million equity fund that will be exclusively focused on this urban townhouse build to rent model. Some of your listeners may have heard of the build to rent market, which is building housing that wouldn't typically be thought of as multifamily rental. Like, you know, multifamily is usually a heads like a big blocky building with multiple units or a big project, 300 units. And those are, you know, those are. But people are taking build the rent. They go, oh, I'm going to do 100 single family detached houses that normally be thought of as a for sale subdivision except they build them and hold them to rent. Ours is a, you know, sort of in that same vein, except ours are all attached, sort of like a row home. And then we'll do, you know, batches of four units or six or 10, and we just lay them out on a site to make the project work, you know, coherently. And we're really, the fund is going to drive us to move into bigger projects. So I think we'll see here in the next, you know, couple years. Probably, you know, on average, you know, 50 unit plus projects of these five, you know, five bedroom townhouses.

Yep. Yeah, we see. Or here in Seattle, I see a lot of, I don't know if they're five bedroom, but a lot of that concept, you know, row townhouses going up in exactly what you said. It's between the, the center and the core of the city and the suburban areas where you see all the, you know, larger lots. Just in that middle section is where just tons of townhouses are coming up. It makes a lot of sense because, you know, rental rates have been going through the roof in Seattle. And so we just need more houses, we need more space for families to live in the city. And this is a great solution to that problem.

We think this is the future, like if we're ever going to catch up on supply and Seattle has shortfall, Louisiana. I mean, California is the worst state in the United States for supply constraint. But I think these middle neighborhoods are going to be the place that we can expand the most efficiently to do most housing. Right. Like, you know, master plan communities too. Low density. I mean, yeah, they do big projects but the density is so low. And you've seen, you know, we're doing lots of these mid rise high rises. You know, Seattle certainly got a lot of that LA too. But you know, we can't produce enough housing on a larger scale unless we start to move into these neighborhoods. Because vast parts of most cities are these middle neighborhoods. Right. That traditionally the zoning is R1. California is right now passing some laws that will allow us to convert, you know, single family lots into three and four, you know, unit. I know Seattle's doing that. Portland's looking at it. Minnesota actually, you know, doesn't have. I know, well, that's the state, but I can't remember the city. But you know, they basically have no single family zone anymore. Like if you have a single family lot, you can do four units on it by. Right?

Huh. Interesting. Yeah. The city of Tacoma, just south of Seattle here. Just not just. But recently passed a lot where pretty much anybody can put an ADU on their lot, which is. Which is useful. I mean, it's not a full. A full single family, but it does. It does help alleviate the problem of density. So. Yeah, love seeing that. Love seeing.

Yeah, we got to get out of the idea that the R1 lot is sacrosanct, can never be touched, like, oh, you know, third rail, Touch it and die. The reality. And we're gonna have a fight. I mean, you know, particularly older generations that are ensconced in their R1 neighborhoods or, you know, they don't want multifamily next to them, and so they're gonna fight. But I think we'll see. We're already seeing it particularly as we have, you know, you know, generational changes in ownership of those, you know, that people will start to be more comfortable with density and helping people to live, you know, good life in these, you know, what are, you know, arguably just purely suburban neighborhoods. Yep.

Yep. I love it. All right.

I just took a peek at the clock.

Looks like we've already gone through our time, so I gotta push us into the quick question round.

Are you sure?

Yes.

Love it. It starts with books, because I'm a big bookie. So give me two book recommendations. One for general life wisdom and one for real estate.

You know, I'll give a couple recommendations. I actually don't have any real estate books because I don't read real estate books anymore. I've, like, been a long time. But two that I'll recommend would be the Bitcoin Standard by Safdeen Amos, and then another book called the Sovereign Individual. And I don't remember the authors of that, but these are definitely in the crypto, bitcoin blockchain space. And that's a lot of what I'm thinking about right now, but particularly the Sovereign Individual, because there's a lot in that book that talks about why we're experiencing some of the social disruption. You know, a lot of money printing going on. You know, coronavirus doesn't have anything to do with demographic changes, but we're at that crux of change. You know, empires, changing US empire. We're going into, you know, different technological background related to money and fiat versus bitcoin, that kind of thing. And very instructive. And a lot of stuff is happening for reasons that people don't know. I mean, they see it happening like social breakdowns and disruption, that kind of thing. So both very disrupted time but the opportunities are massive in my mind. And so that can apply to real estate too.

Yeah, no. Bitcoin cryptocurrencies are really interesting. Every time somebody brings it up, though, I get a little bitter or hurts a little bit. Because when Ethereum was first a coin, when it just started out, me and my cousin, we're kind of computer nerds. So we built this huge mining machine that had, I don't know, eight GPUs in it, and we mined a bunch of Ethereum. We had this account, we just let it sit for a while and then we realized Ethereum was so high, but.

We lost the password for the account.

And so we can't get all those in game.

It's like I, you know, learn that this is a common. Like, almost everybody has this, ah, dude, I missed it, I lost it. I wasn't early enough. And you sort of like, suffer. And so it's the old, you know, best time to plant a tree was, you know, 20 years ago. And today.

One of these days, we're.

Going to remember that password and get that.

Yeah, right, right, right, right. That has a forces everybody like, hey, write that seed phrase down, man. Don't. Do not document that thing.

That's right. All right, moving on. So this is, this is for. Sorry, I lost my place. One second. Give me a second. There we go. So, habits. So we all, you know, every human has something that they uniquely are exceptional at. We all have strengths. You're no different. So why don't you brag a little bit? Tell us, what is your Superman strength? What are you exceptional at?

Well, I think it really comes down to sort of like, generally, I would say, like creative problem solving. Right? Like real estate development is a series of breakdowns and problems to be solved. But I'd like to put a more positive, like, distinction to it. So maybe it would be innovation. Creativity and problem solving is, you know, within that Innovation. Creative. I mean, uth Urban Townhouse was a creative moment for our series of moments for us, for me to look at a large issue of, you know, housing supply and, you know, housing constraint and solving a major problem. And so I really, you know, if I look back on it, you know, my problem solving skills have improved and now to a point where, like, I've definitely moved into what I consider to be like the innovation space. Like, I'm always looking for. Here's a. How's a new way to do this thing? A new way to, you know, produce. Produce this action that everybody's doing, but do it in a Better, way faster, more effectively, more competitively. So I would definitely put it in that innovation, creativity, problem solving space.

Perfect. I love it. That is definitely useful in real estate, that's for sure. Moving on. And this one is for your younger self.

So if you could go back to the.

Scott, who had no idea about real estate, hadn't made that leap yet. Go back to him, look him in the eye, give him one piece of advice moving forward.

Buy Bitcoin early.

That's an easy one, right?

Yeah, yeah. So I'm being cute here. Let's see what I said before about the networks, right? In fact, my oldest son is at USC in their real estate development program, and I'm like, just hammering him on networks. Like, dude, meet everybody you can, you know, build an identity with them, you know, follow up with them, communicate with them, whatever it takes to basically be in touch with them and communicate with them, because that's way more valuable than what you'll get as far as an education. And yes, great, you know, great university have a certain value, but that network that you build. And just like, you know, I don't remember what you said exactly, but, you know, if somebody started that early, I mean, imagine if you were 21 or 20 and you were on social media and you were starting a podcast or whatever or whatever it is to get in front of people by the time you're 25, I mean, you're way ahead. And you and I have both probably worked hard in our various ways to build networks, but more and more, in fact, a friend of mine, he basically said this way, he goes, rather than spending all my time to get straight A's in college, he goes, I would have done 80, 20, where I basically spent 20% of my time to get 80% of the grades that were 80% of an A, so B or something to that effect, and then spend 80% of my time on building networks. And then he was super smart about that. And I go, yeah. And I've sort of conveyed that to my son. Now, of course, it's challenging because our whole thing and kids that are in junior high and high school now is like, you got to get the grades because you got to get into the college, right? It's so hyper competitive. And then what you have to do, then you have to sort of like, you know, back them off of this, like, grade, you know, concentration. And now, okay, now you got to build networks. And so that was fact. Why I, you know, amongst the colleges that he went to, usc, because I go, man, the network is like, you know, one of the best in the world. And that was my advice to him. So, you know, definitely, that is a.

That is great advice. And that's the same advice I'd say is just make sure you graduate. Other than that, go out there, right?

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. That's why my friend Eric, he's like his 8020 logic around I go, yeah, that's like you're not, you know, you're not like giving it all up, but you're not also putting all the extra time of, you know, you're sort of at, what's the, you know, the law of diminishing returns. Yeah, you got the A, but how much more time did you spend to get the A? If you could have just got the B and opened up that like vast amount of time that it took you to get the extra, you know, higher grade and apply that to, you know, building networks. I mean that would, that one thing alone if somebody who was in college or whatever. I mean it doesn't have to be college. Any, any effort. Right. If you're working a full time job. Right. Give, you know, and I'm not suggesting people slack and that's what you're saying, but like, like shift that orientation around. Okay, I got my job, I'm going to keep my job, I'm going to do a good job at it, but I'm going to create this, open up this space of possibility for like, like meeting people and talking to people and doing social media work. I mean that's so more, so much more powerful.

Yep, yep, absolutely. All right, going on to the last question here. This one is about habits. What we do day in, day out kind of forms the foundation of who we are. So if you could point to one thing that you do every single day that contributes the most to your overall health, wellbeing, Happiness. What would that be?

Health, well being and happiness. So my, my recent thing over the last, you know, little while is I, I do a daily three and a half mile walk.

Oh, nice.

Takes me about an hour. You know, I, I, I do it daily. I mean I've, I've, last week I missed a day which was like, I started suffering over it, but it really has been a game changer for me. Just like, you know, from a health perspective and you know, people go walking. Oh, that's like so, you know, you know, so like it's like a weak thing, you know, to work out versus lifting or that. I mean I, I do, you know, I have a trainer, I work out doing weights. I think but the, the, the walk, I mean, you get the exercise, you get outside, you get sunshine. You know, I even have this thing I've been doing some reading about not wearing sunglasses. So your eyes get, you know, sunshine on them. And, you know, you look at the blue sky and the trees and I think to me, where I've landed on, it's just like, like, if you think about what human beings did every day when we were, you know, cavemen and cave women, you know, you went out and you walked to go get food and you walk through the forest and there was sunshine and trees and breeze and dirt on your feet, whatever. And I realized, like, I think that's how we're supposed to be, right? Like, that's. And so, but particularly what it is, it's the, it's the mood adjustment. Like, I come back from the walk and like, I can leave and be like, super. I'm going to, you know, have a meltdown and I'll come back and you know, the fresh air and the sunshine and the blue sky and the physical activity, it's just like, oh, I'm in like such a better mood. So I can pretty much depend if I'm in a, like, bad state to go on a walk and I'm going to come back feeling, you know, better than. I want to laugh.

Yep, absolutely. Yeah. Walks are weird because, you know, you're not laying down, you're not, you're not resting. But I always, after a walk, I just feel so much better. I just feel so relaxed, so rested. It's a funny kind of, it's, it's.

Definitely, you know, must produce endorphins. I mean, I haven't done the research on it, but I think more and more people look up walking as a, like a, as a health move. My wife actually said, you know, like, scientists are now going, like, we actually think this may be better than other forms of exercise. And certainly for me, you know, it's like, I've tried running and I just like, literally it is, it is a painful experience for my body. And I, you know, I run stairs and you know, I'm on a walk, I'll do step ups on benches and that kind of thing just to amp it up a little bit. But, you know, definitely, like easier on your body and still produces a lot of the. So maybe it's this 80, 20 thing. I'm just thinking about this.

But, you know, for this podcast, you're.

Getting 80% of the benefit from like 20 of the, you know, effort or whatever. I don't know, walking.

All right, I got to cut us off because we did hit the time. So the very last question here is for the listeners. You've given us a lot of good advice. So I'm sure people want to reach out. What is the best way for them to reach out and say hi?

So they can go to our website, which is Triple W, urban Pacific dot com. So pretty easy to remember when you're there. Take a look at our investor education section. You know, got a lot of stuff about, you know, apartment underwriting and investment and development. So, you know, we spend a lot of time sort of talking about what we do and the effort to, like, have people, you know, gain some knowledge of it. When you're there, there's a red sign up button hit that. We do a Saturday E Blast, basically. I don't call it a newsletter, but it's a curated set of articles from the reading that I do, you know, constantly. We're just always curating, finding articles about real estate, about economics. I'm starting to write more and more about the blockchain space and new technologies, but it's really to try to curate what I call the signal from the noise. So in other words, there's a lot of stuff going on in the marketplace and I'm trying to focus in on what's important if somebody wants to be effective in real estate or development or blockchain or cryptocurrency. And I'm not a crypto guy, but I do as a learner about, I go, hey, here's what I'm seeing, but particularly economic cycles. Where it came from is my reading as to what's happening in the world that's meaningful for my business to be able to be effective at the rapidly changing environment. We're in the most rapidly changing environment in human history. Last two years, it's accelerated even more. It was already going fast. So this newsletter is to pick the signal out of the noise for people to find something meaningful and actionable out of it.

Perfect. I love it. And that is@urban pacific.com so if anybody wants to get on that, on that newsletter and get the signal from the noise, go to urban pacific.com and it sounds like there's a newsletter button there to. To click. And I'll put that in the show notes. So if you guys are missing it, just click the little more in the description. It'll pull down the full description in there. You can find the URL. So, Scott, that wraps it up. Thank you very much for hopping on the show.

Yeah, Gabe, great to be with you.

Absolutely. And for everybody who's here with us today, thank you guys for showing up. You are the reason we do this. So if you guys have any questions whatsoever, reach out to me. Gabealestateinvestingclub.com Other than that, hope you guys.

Have a great week.

Keep rocking real estate and I look forward to seeing you on the next episode.

Thank you for joining us for another episode of the Real Estate Investing Club. I hope you guys enjoyed the episode.

As always, much as I enjoyed putting.

It on and we're able to pull some actionable advice that you can apply in your own investing today in the field. Before you go, we have a gift for you. If you're a new investor looking to get started or an established investor looking to invest, take your investing to the next level. I've created an ebook just for you. Available on our website. This ebook will cover how I was able to create both active and passive income in real estate with very little money to start with. In it, I will address the three most often cited obstacles new and veteran investors run into by showing you how to find deals that are actually deals, how to finance a deal with little to no money down, and how to exit those deals for maximum value. And if you get the ebook Today I am throwing in a bundle of bonuses. Seven of them to be exact. The first one will be the Off Market Lead Generation Blueprint, which will take you through the exact systems and processes we use to generate off market leads like clockwork, which is the most important skill when it comes to creating wealth in real estate. The second bonus is the A to Z REI Systems and Vendors Guide, which will allow you to peek under the hood of our business and see the exact tools, systems and even the vendors we use to see the success that we do. And the third bonus is the top 100 best performing keywords Package, which is which will give you the exact key words we used to target motivated sellers online using PPPC ads. The fourth bundle is or the fourth bonus is our Contracts Bundle for wholesaling and Renting Real Estate, which will give you access to all the contracts we use in the field to execute all different types of transactions. After that is the Investors Quick Analysis Calculator and Offer Tool which will allow you to quickly calculate whether a deal is an actual deal and will allow you to create an offer automagically from those calculations. This is a lot of a lot of bonuses that I said I'm just going to keep going down the list. Number six is the Investors Daily Success Tracker, which is a tracker you can use to ensure you are taking the right actions day in and day out to reach your financial goals in real estate. And the last bonus is the Wholesalers template for Quick Assignment Cash, which will give you the templates we use to present our wholesale deals professionally and efficiently to our buyers.

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That is a bundle. So it's a mouthful. You get all those bonuses for free when you download the E book. All we charge is the admin cost to run the show. So if you're interested in the E book and the bonus bundle, head on over to the website@therealestateinvestingclub.com Click on Get the E Book Bundle at the top of the page to take advantage of that deal. And with that said, I hope you have a fantastic day and even better week. Keep rocking real estate and I look forward to seeing you on the next episode.